Jessica Huseman for Votebeat:
When newly elected Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis kicked off a series of election security reforms in 2019, he said, “protecting the integrity of Florida’s elections” was one of his “top priorities.” In addition to giving $2 million to local election offices to shore up defenses and initiating a review of all 67 counties’ cyber practices, he also that year announced that Florida was joining the Electronic Registration Information Center — an obscure nonprofit that would help the massive state clean its voter roll and reach out to eligible but unregistered voters.
“We want to make sure that the voter rolls are accurate, and one of the best ways to do that, I think, is for Florida to join the Electronic Registration Information Center, known as ERIC,” DeSantis said at an August 2019 news conference.
So, starting the following year, Florida shared motor vehicle and voter registration data with ERIC. Using similar data from states across the country, ERIC produced a list of people who were registered in Florida but had moved, died, or otherwise rendered themselves ineligible to vote in the state. It also provided Florida with a list of people who were eligible to vote but had not registered.
The state received its first tranche of data from ERIC ahead of the 2020 election, using it to reach out to more than 2 million eligible but unregistered voters. DeSantis enjoys bragging that Republican registration caught up to Democrats for the very first time during his tenure. Then, in 2021, counties began to use ERIC data to remove thousands of registered voters who’d moved out of state or died.
In 2022, DeSantis announced an entire police force dedicated to solving election crimes. The newly-assembled squad told the media it received much of its information on double voting and ineligible registrations from ERIC. Last month, for example, a man in Pinellas County was arrested and charged with a felony for allegedly casting two ballots in the 2020 election after ERIC flagged him.
The same day the arrest was made, DeSantis announced Florida would leave the program.
Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia, Missouri, and Ohio have also announced their exits, and Iowa’s secretary of state has said he’ll ask the Legislature to end the state’s participation. Texas is widely expected to be next in line. Like DeSantis, officials and Republican activists in each state had previously and recently praised the program.
DeSantis’s office didn’t respond to questions from Votebeat about the state’s sudden pivot, instead referring Votebeat to the Office of Secretary of State Cord Byrd. A spokesperson for Byrd responded with a link to an interview Byrd had given to One American News Network, a right-wing news outlet, about the decision to leave ERIC.
In the interview, Byrd said “nothing stops” Florida from continuing to share information with other states “who value voter integrity.” While it’s true Florida can continue to negotiate individual data-sharing agreements with each state in the country, experts widely agree there is no program as robust as ERIC. The office declined to comment further, and DeSantis’ office said it wouldn’t answer any questions.
“You will get whatever comment we decide to provide and nothing more,” wrote Jeremy Redfern, a DeSantis spokesperson.
The clearest explanation for these states’ reversal is the unrelenting campaign against ERIC, begun by a fringe publication, The Gateway Pundit, in early 2022. Louisiana was the first state to withdraw, shortly after the coverage began. Then, the storyline spun out.
“Last year The Gateway Pundit reported on the ERIC Systems in a series of articles and follow-up reports for over a year now,” Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft wrote last month. “These articles have gone viral and are being passed on to state officials.”
Across the country, local Republican groups began demanding answers about ERIC, and powerful local activists began to insist their elected officials leave the program. These demands have grown so loud that many who once sang the praises of ERIC can no longer resist turning on it. …